


Truth

by malinaldarose (coralysendria)



Category: Earth: Final Conflict
Genre: Community: trope_bingo, Episode Related, Episode Tag, Episode: s01e04 Avatar, Episode: s01e05 Old Flame, False Memories, Gen, Mind Manipulation, Trope Bingo Amnesty, Undercover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-09
Updated: 2020-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:07:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23085997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coralysendria/pseuds/malinaldarose
Summary: In order to test his motivational imperative, the Taelons implanted false memories along with Boone's CVI.  Boone is not happy about it.
Kudos: 2





	Truth

**Author's Note:**

> This could fill any of the Mind Control squares on any of my previous Trope Bingo Cards, but we'll plonk it down in the Free Space on my Round 12 card.

William Boone stares into the Ohio night, his hands resting on the parapet of the balcony outside his office. Through the virtual glass behind him, he can still hear the weird melodies of the CD that Lili gave him. The melancholy, otherworldly sounds of the Taelon music reinforce his somber mood. 

He should go home. It's late, even for the unpredictable hours he's been keeping for the last two months since being recruited by Da'an. But he's not going to sleep, anyway, so it doesn't really matter. He has long since learned to keep a change of clothes in his office. He can let his CVI deal with the lack of sleep for a day or so. 

He grimaces. The CVI. The damned Taelon "gift" -- the cause of his insomnia. They placed false memories in his head that overrode everything he thought and felt. If not for Lili's intervention, he would have betrayed not only himself, but her and Doors and the entire Liberation. He told Lili earlier that he feels violated. He does. After Elyse, how can he be certain anything he thinks or feels is true? What if his memories of Katie are false? What if the Taelons implanted those, as well? What if he isn't even William Boone? How can he be sure of anything, anymore? Where is a man safe, if not in his own mind? A man's mind is his castle, to borrow a metaphor, and he has always felt safe in his own thoughts. But his castle was breached and he found intruders in the main hall, calmly rearranging his furniture. If he can't trust his own memories, what can he trust?

Umrathama, James Pike called Da'an. The Liar. And according to Pike, Boone's free will -- his missing motivational imperative -- makes him Shaqarava, the one who burns away Umrathama's lies. He repeats the name in his thoughts, giving it the Taelon pronunciation that he can't quite manage aloud.

He never trusted the Taelons, nor did he make a secret of his mistrust...until the implantation of his CVI two months ago, at any rate. Now he has to keep his true feelings secret from everyone but Lili and the Liberation. Mistrust is one thing, though. Before tonight, he never thought of the Taelons as hostile invaders. This evening, with Lili, he used a word he has never thought in connection to the Taelons before. He called them an _enemy._

He considers the thought. Does he truly believe it, or is it just a reaction to the events of the last couple of weeks -- first Pike and now Elyse? Since his implantation, he has so far had little contact with any Taelon other than Da'an. He knows, of course, that the human-seeming facade Da'an and the other Companions present to the world is just that -- a facade. A lie, to use Pike's terminology. But he doesn't think there is anything truly malicious in that; it is meant to put humans at ease, to give them something to relate to. The Taelons' true shape is beautiful, but perhaps too alien for the average human. Boone can't fault that; he is well aware of his species' normal responses to what they fear or do not understand. The facade, then, is self-defense. Camouflage. Unlike Doors, he doesn't have a problem with that. 

The fact of the matter is that he had been beginning to like Da'an. To trust him. But that liking and trust have been betrayed in the worst possible way. Not only have the Taelons caused him to doubt himself, but they caused him to kill a man. Boone has killed before, but never without a compelling reason -- and never without regret, even during the war. That man at the train station didn't need to die; Elyse was never truly in any danger. He wonders if the Taelons regret the death. He knows that Sandoval doesn't, but Sandoval is controlled by his MI, so his thoughts and feelings are not his own. Which, Boone supposes, answers the question about regret in the Taelons, too.

Trust is a two way street. The existence of the motivational imperative proves that the Taelons do not -- for all their pretty words and deeds -- trust humanity. So if they don't trust humans, what then are they hiding? The answer is obvious: their real purpose for coming to Earth and their real purpose for the gifts they have bestowed upon mankind. What hidden price is there for the medical miracles they have wrought? For ending a war that was on the verge of tearing the world apart? For feeding the millions who were starving? 

There is a purpose behind it all. Boone's eyes narrow as he stares out at the city below. He unconsciously straightens from his slouch and squares his shoulders. He accepted the CVI to find out the truth. At first, he was only looking for the truth about Kate's death, no matter what he might have said to Doors or Lili. Now, though.... Now, he knows that he has to commit whole-heartedly to finding out the truth behind the Taelons' presence on Earth. 

They might -- or might not -- be an enemy as he named them in the first rush of rage and anguish at the violation of his mind. But William Boone will find out the truth. Before Da'an recruited him, he was a cop, and before that, covert ops. He knows how to be patient, how to wait, how to ask artfully innocent questions. He _will_ find the truth.

And when he does....

He will act accordingly.


End file.
